The Pros and Cons of Magnet Schools

Since making the decision to send my daughter, Taylor, to a magnet school in Hartford 6 years ago, I have been asked many times, “Why would you send your daughter to school in Hartford?” My response many times is that I was frustrated with all the repeated budget battles in town.

My older daughter, Ana, who graduated from BHS in 2009 was at McGee when all sports were cut and had to choose between taking Spanish or taking an art class. As a parent, I had been attending the Board of Education meetings faithfully and following the annual budget process. It was both frustrating and concerning that such a wealthy town as Berlin struggled every year with the amount of per pupil spending. 

During the year that sports were cut at McGee, my younger daughter, Taylor, came home with a School Choice brochure and we started looking through it. She was excited about a school and asked if we could go to the open house. We went to the open house for Classical Magnet School, where the motto is “Non scholae sed vitae discimus: “We learn not for school, but for life” and we were impressed with the concept of every class being taught at the honors level, mandatory after school enrichment, and the curriculum of philosophy, Latin, rhetoric, math and science along with art, theater, music and phys ed. 

This coupled with the brand new state-of-the-art facility, small class sizes, and cultural diversity made this school a good fit for Taylor.  We decided that if she went she would have to stay for a whole school year.  She started in 7th grade and never looked back, she is graduating this year.

Based on Taylor’s great experience, when my youngest, Sierra, was about to enter kindergarten, we looked in to an elementary magnet school. We found Breakthrough magnet also in Hartford where the central theme is character building utilizing the BRICK (B-turning breakdown’s into breakthroughs, R-responsibility, I-integrity, C-community, and K-knowledge) model.  We enrolled Sierra in kindergarten and Noah in second grade at Breakthrough. That was 5 years ago.

There are definitely pros and cons with sending the kids out of town to school. The programs and resources available in conjunction with the central themes of each school are outstanding. We live in a diverse world and being exposed to diversity is an important aspect of learning.

Being around students for different backgrounds opens your mind to viewing the world from various perspectives. The schools that my children attend serve 17 different towns; 60 to 65 percent of the students are from Hartford and 35 to 40 percent are suburban students, which allows for diversity among race, ethnicity and socio-economic status. They have made friendships with people they might not have otherwise had the opportunity to come in to contact with.

There are also some challenges:  Due to the fact that the school serves 17 different towns, chances are the people you made friends with don’t live close to you which makes getting together outside of school more difficult.  The days are long since you have to travel farther to school and pick up kids from different towns along the way.

For instance, Sierra’s bus picks her up at 7 a.m. and due to after school enrichment she often times doesn’t get home until after 5 p.m. Another downside is that you start to lose some connection with the kids that live in your town since you don’t see them every day in school.  In order for my kids to help stay connected and engaged they are involved in girl scouts and town sports. 

I am grateful that we live in a state that offers people choice. Not every school is right for every child.  My eldest daughter is a proud graduate of BHS and wouldn’t have had it any other way. She is doing well as an elementary education major at Central Connecticut State University.

Taylor is graduating this year from Classical Magnet School in Hartford and she wouldn’t trade her time there for anything in the world. She is going on to attend Wesleyan next year.   

As for Noah and Sierra, they are happily attending Classical Magnet and Breakthrough schools. As they continue to progress through school we will continue to evaluate what the best fit is for them. We love the town we live in and we love where the kids go to school. It truly is the best of both worlds.